Coral Coast 5150 - 5th

Coral Coast 5150 was a race on my radar since the start of 2013. An opportunity to secure some good qualification points for the 5150 championship race in Hy-Vee later this year and hit 2 hard races back to back with Cairns 70.3 the following weekend. With my previous 6 weeks consisting of 1 X non-drafting sprint distance triathlon, 1 X 5150 and 2 X 70.3’s I was a little unsure of how the body would pull up for yet another hard race against a stacked professional men’s field. With names on the start list including swim/bike weapon Clayton Fettell, multiple ironman world champion Chris McCormack, Olympian Brad Kahlefeldt and many Australian Ironman/70.3 heavy hitters such as Joe Lampe, Luke McKenzie, Tim Berkel and Matty White this would be one hotly contested race! Checking the 5150 world ranking points the day before I saw that I was currently the number 1 ranked pro male for the event (but no pressure right?). The body the day before felt a little sluggish but ready to go for an early Sunday morning start.

I woke up early on Sunday morning (I have a great home stay in Cairns for the week), which meant an hour-long drive to Coral Coast for the event. A big thank you to Tony at Triathlon Queensland for giving me a ride to the event! Check in sorted, bike racked, warm-up done and soon enough it was go time. The swim start was quick and running into the water I lost a few meters on the top guys but by the first swim buoy had rejoined the front pack. The race split early with just 6 of us in the front swim pack. I spent the majority of the time sticking close to Brad Kahlefeldt’s hip/feet at the back of the 6 man strong group. In the final few hundred meters I ever so slightly lost contact with the group and after a fast transition headed out onto the bike in 6^th just 30 meters or so off the front group.

The first 20kms of the ride was ON with Clayton immediately putting the hammer down with his ‘Fettell to the metal’ approach to racing. A few tried to go with him and personally I found it hard enough just bridging the 30 meters I lost going onto the bike back up to the group. 1 athlete dropped off early on and so it was down to 5 men. After the first of 2 X 20km loops Luke McKenzie hit the afterburners establishing a gap pretty quickly. Soon after at 30kms Joe Lampe attacked but only managed to limit Lukes gap to 40 seconds and then 10 seconds back to myself and Brad Kahlefeldt heading into T2. The entire ride was very tactical with attacks going very regularly & the pace really on. Although I didn’t have a bike computer my 52.50 ride time works out to be an average speed of 45kph+ if the course was correct.

T2 Transition with Brad on my tail

The run consisted of 4 by 2.5km loops on the beach and I headed out of T2 next to Brad who quickly put the hammer down and dropped me within the first 200 meters. My legs really felt batted and I really couldn’t get them moving fast enough to attempt a chase on Joey and Luke who I desperately wanted to run down as to get myself onto the podium. Over the course of the run I continued to loose time to the 4 men in front. I had to watch my back as Tim Berkel was ripping up the sand behind me putting time into my lead on him every lap. I really had to dig deep over the entire run leg with my legs and entire body in some major pain.

Crossing the line in 5^th was a solid result and meant that I picked up some great points for my 5150 world points ranking which will now hopefully move me inside the top 10 in the world.

I will be keeping things pretty light on this week in preparation for Cairns 70.3 this coming Sunday. It will be another tough race against a stacked field. Bring it on! 

Top 9 Professional Men Coral Coast 5150